Applied Immortality

“So you’re saying that building a Cartesian coordinate system, or a three-element system, is hard? Is your sword art that complex and awesome that it can break dimensions?”

Wang Qi worked on the problem while mocking Zhen Chanzi.

The sword wave in his mind was no illusion, but what the ancient system called an indescribable art.

A narrative had limited knowledge, making it impossible to convey arts beyond a certain complexity. The ancient system used a forced recording and imparting it directly into their disciples’ minds.

Ancient cultivation showed off with it, insisting on true arts being impossible to convey through words.

The modern system’s reply was to scoff and crack up. “You can’t use words to describe complex arts, but did you try formulas?”

Transcendent Newton’s three great principles described the motion of objects at low speed in three short formulas.

Unified Arts Maxwell’s Celestial Element Series referred to electromagnetic nature, the core of which stood four systems of equations.

Could an art get more complex than that?

“Does the art contain the creator’s intent?”

“Now that’s something we can do without! Like the saying goes, emulate to evolve or clone to crumble. Everything that you display in the end belongs to you. Why insist on copying others?”

Wang Qi did exactly that, analyzing Zhen Chanzi’s ancient sword art.

It wasn’t defeat from Geng Peng that had him flip, but Gene Valley’s Primordial Spirit cultivator’s words to Ai Dinglan. “Not everyone can do what you do, girl!”

Finding out there was a better prize out there than getting first blood, Wang Qi lost all desire to challenge any Foundation Establishment teaching assistant that moved. His plan was to suck it up and get back at Geng Peng alone, to the point it didn’t look like Geng Peng went easy. That would be glorious!

As for Ai Dinglan’s level… [Uh, let’s skip that…]

Wang Qi might be an early Qi Refining cultivator, but his power went beyond that standard. Since his major cultivation method, Evolution Chart, advanced, Grand Ripple Enigma and Celestial Entropy brought his weighted value to 5. Add 2, for his dabbling in Shifting Martial Series, and Wang Qi had no problem fighting with your typical late Qi Refining cultivator.

Having not met Ai Dinglan’s overkill skills in every sense of the way, or Geng Peng’s shamelessness in employing high math skills, Wang Qi could’ve breezed through any other Qi Refining limited Immortal Institute teaching assistant.

So in order to boost his power in the shortest period, martial skills and magical arts were a must. Hence Wang Qi asked Zhen Chanzi for a sword art.

Discovering the modern system’s ingenuity, Zhen Chanzi reevaluated the importance of his inheritance and straightforwardly passed on the very top Ephemeral Sword Art. He was intrigued to see Wang Qi using math to dissect it. “What’s this for?”

“Just looking for the sword wave’s trajectory formula.”

Zhen Chanzi clicked his tongue. “Spread over six pages?”Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“One and a half, actually. This page contains calculations, while this has mistakes.” Wang Qi scribbled half a page with ease. “Each of the Ephemeral Sword Art’s 24 forms is an element… Not nearly enough…”

“What?”

“Can’t get a general outline of it…” Wang Qi chew on the brush.

Zhen Chanzi asked, “Hey, Ephemeral Sword Art has no such thing. Each form is random like clouds and formless like water.”

“It’s normal for you guys to not look for an outline.” Wang Qi shook his head. “Ephemeral Sword Art is a sword art, which means the 24 elements have common traits.”

Wang Qi’s spiritual power moved faster and faster, the yin-yang diagrams flickering on and off.

All he needed was a hint to put it all together. “What’s the best way to do it?”

The sword wave Zhen Chanzi used his soul power to imprint in his mind kept flowing.

But the bright wave held something at its core that Zhen Chanzi was oblivious of.

The three-dimensional system.

The sword wave ran amok in the classic Euclidean space, made up of three mutually perpendicular lines, with some exceptions.

Alas, there were too few clues to define the sword art’s variations.

Wang Qi stared at the papers, the brush’s end close to snapping between his teeth.

Ephemeral Sword Art flaunted ‘random like the clouds and formless like water,’ a skill some Ephemeral Tranquility Palace expert created by staring a thousand years at the Ephemeral Mountain’s drifting clouds. It was highly known in those days of way old for being unpredictable.

That meant its equation had to encompass an equal degree of variation.

“But simplifying it into a formula isn’t… right. I’ve yet to find the relation between the strikes and factorization. If I were to unite these abstract images…”

“The strikes are a system’s… the geezer’s inheritance. The sword wave is the link…”

“A link. So if I…”

Wang Qi was struck by inspiration.

“That’s it! Eureka!”

The coordinate system encompassing the sword glow in his mind sported a number axis.

“If I use this variable to make a new number axis…”

The number axis started from the origin yet was perpendicular to the other three axes.

The sword glow shrank, or rather, the space around it.

“After adding another dimension, this is what the sword art looks like!”

Wang Qi was ecstatic. The Ephemeral Sword Art’s every move and action played out in his mind in a four-dimension system. All of the sword art’s secrets lay bare!

Hilbert space, or Cosmic Calculation. Turning variables into dimensions to construct multi-dimensional mathematical hypothetical models for depicting the movements of complex systems.

Axis after axis appeared in Wang Qi’s mind, triggering the Ephemeral Sword Art’s sword wave to collapse again and again. Wang Qi was absorbed in the process, spurring the yin-yang diagrams to flash faster than a Christmas tree.

He reached a point where the sword was no longer the cryptic cloud. It shrunk from the irregular form, down to a sphere, then to a plane, and finally into a line.

This was the Ephemeral Sword Art’s outline, the formula that encompassed its every change.

It was Wang Qi’s first sword formula. “This is it!”

Wang Qi flicked the brush in excitement as he wrote it down.

He looked up to find someone to gush over his discovery with, only to see Su Junyu staring back.

Su Junyu was on guard. “Did you say eureka? Just try following tradition and I’ll smack you.”